This project is pretty new but there is work to make it web browser capable either in a java applet or a plugin for IE/FF/WebKit/etc but there are also others that are out there using alternative renderers. Most of these are in early development with varying support and do not currently compare to Adobe’s Flash Player versions. However the hardware rendering ones like JITB may beat it fairly quickly once all the other features are added. Complete OpenGL based renderers like Unity or WebGL are fast and can run pretty heavy rendering because of hardware acceleration for all drawing and native support.

Flash Players that use OpenGL as the renderer are nice because cross platform support is easier. The reason why OpenGL is a great idea is it is so cross platform on desktop and on mobile, it is also coming soon in WebGL for the browser hopefully.

Versions of OpenGL and support

OpenGL ES

OpenGL ES 1.1 = OpenGL 1.5 and lower (fixed function)

Android

iOS devices 3rd gen and lessx

OpenGL ES 2.0 = OpenGL 2+ (current version 4.1 – shader capable).

iPhone (3GS or later), iPod Touch (3rd generation and later) and iPad

Android 2.2+

WebGL

OpenGL

Windows

OSX

Linux

There is still a clear open field for an open source player to match something like Moonlight for Silverlight or hardware rendered canvas. WebGL would be great to have in time if it gets support but it is also nice to have a compiled language in the content that works in the player faster than scripting but with the ease of scripting. Plugins are still very relevant if they can address that.

*drawlogic is authored by Ryan Christensen of *drawlabs and *drawcode, both dedicated to taking ideas to ship doing entertainment focused web, mobile and desktop game and interactive development projects.